Oktogo.ru: Yerevan among Russian travelers’ top ten destinations in CIS in 2013

YEREVAN, February 14. /ARKA/. Russian Oktogo.ru online hotel reservation service has named top ten cities in the Commonwealth of Independent States that attracted Russian travelers in 2013 – Kiev, Minsk, Odessa, Kishinev, Almaty, Baku, Lviv, Astana, Yerevan and Tashkent.

“In 2013, Russian citizens traveled to CIS countries for three days, on average, and paid about 3,400 rubles a day,” said Olga Favarizova, chief of the Travel.ru (Oktogo) company’s operational unit. “These figures remained almost unchanged, compared with 2012, but the number of trips to CIS countries’ cities with online booking via Internet rose more than twice.”

According to Oktogo.ru, the longest trips in 2013 were made by Russians to Yerevan – for six days, on average, and the shortest to Minsk – for two days.

Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, was singled out in as the Oktogo.ru ranking as the most expensive city, and Kishinev, the capital city of Moldova, as the most consumer-grade city. Russians paid 6,300 rubles, on average, for per-day accommodation in hotels in Astana, while in Kishinev they paid 2,700 rubles.

Oktogo.ru also mentioned Yerevan’s sights attracting Russians. Many parks, the Yerevan fortress of the 16 century and Matenadaran, the museum of ancient manuscripts, are among them. Opera and Ballet Theatre with Philharmonic Hall, Chamber Music House and other pieces created by Armenian architects are mentioned as well.

In Oktogo.ru ranking, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Uzbekistan are pointed out as the most popular CIS countries for Russians.

In 2013, Russian tourists travelling independently stayed in Ukraine four days, on average, paying about 3,100 rubles per day for accommodation, and in Kazakhstan three and a half days, paying more than 5,000 rubles.

Oktogo.ru hotel reservation service is included in Travel.ru (Oktogo) company, which also includes Travel.ru tourist portal. More than 3 million people visit Travel.ru and Oktogo.ru every month. Oktogo.ru offers 350,000 hotels across the world and the largest number of hotels in Russia – more than 5,500. Clients can pay for accommodation in hotels by bank cards and online money as well as by cash in ATMs and retail networks. National Geographic Traveler named Oktogo.ru the best Internet service in 2012 and 2013. The general investor of Travel.ru (Oktogo) is Mangrove Capital Partners. --0----